Last year he also called on the UK government to licence the opium poppy trade in Afghanistan, to help combat a world shortage in the pain-killing drug morphine.

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The UN said last week that opium-poppy production has begun to rise again in Myanmar after six years of sharp declines.

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The opium-free poppy seed is the result of five years of research by scientists at the government-run Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants based in Lucknow.

BBC: Addictive-free poppy seed developed

This year, however, poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan appears to have decreased sharply .

BBC: Afghan challenges for President Karzai